Layne Beachley has a list of achievements as long as the beach at Manly. She was inducted into the Sport Australia hall of fame in 2011, and elevated to legend in 2023. She won seven world surfing championships, including a record six in a row. She was a game changer in so many ways that her legacy goes well beyond the silverware.
From fighting for pay equity in surfing to learning how to detach self-worth from achievements, Layne drops so many life lessons that Abbey immediately starts planning a wall of Post-it notes.
We discuss:
- Why women’s surfing was a “misogynistic shit show” for much of her career and how it changed
- The battle to achieve equal prize money and how it was done
- The difference between dream team members and dream thieves
- The one breathing technique that can change your day for the better
- How to find purpose after retiring from the very top
- What really happens when a giant wave wipes you out
- Why Kelly Slater still blows Layne’s mind
- The surprisingly small amount of prize money Layne earned across 19 years on tour, and why it's not unusual
Harvey Norman love sport. Supporting Australian athletes at all levels, from grassroots to the world stage for over thirty years. SHOP Furniture, Bedding, TVs, Fridges, Vacuums, Laptops, Mobiles and more instore or online!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Dear listener, it's a very poorly kept secret that in
another life, Abby Gelmy and myself are on the World
Surf Tour. This other life lives in our heads. We
know that we don't have the balance, we don't have
the poise. I mean, we certainly don't have the discipline
of Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush, but it is a
(00:26):
dream that we still are very very committed to, so
much so that we thought that through osmosis, what if
we could talk to the best of the best, the
greatest of all surfers, who just so happens to be
one of Australia's own, a living legend, a Hall of Famer,
(00:46):
a seven time world champion, six of those straight, and
also a woman who I have on very good authority
from a friend of hers, despite belonging to a very
individualistic sport, is the ultimate team player. When I asked
this person how they would describe Laine Beachley, they said,
(01:08):
you know how the ocean makes you feel better, that's Lane.
Lane is the ocean.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Who is this person?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Lane Beachley? Welcome to do good sports.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Good morning, Thank you Georgie, thank you ebe lovely to
see your beautiful faces, and I need to know who's that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh, that person is a mister Robert Mills, who happens
to be my fiance, but who worked with you on
The Celebrity Apprentice. Yes, and when I said that we
were talking to you today, his whole face just lit
up and was like, she is a salve to all things.
She just makes you feel so good. She is the
(01:48):
ultimate hype girl. She is the shot of coffee you
didn't know you needed.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's very kind of you, Robert.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
There's probably a strange question to start on, but how
did you find reality?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Truly?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's as far from reality as you can possibly.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, there we are, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I needed a lot of vodka to get through that series,
and it was a dry set, which made it even harder.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I dry set.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Wow, sometimes I need vodka to get through life with
Robert Mills and I love that man, Do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
But truly it is when we say surfing being an
individual sport, did you find that during your career or
did you have so many different people that you needed
to lean on in order to have the success that
you did.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I refer to all the people that I leaned
on and had support from was my dream team, and
there was a variety of them, so from coaches, mentors,
personal trainers, surfboard shapers, practitioners, friends, family. None of us
have done this alone. And I'm very grateful that I've
surrounded myself with people who believed in me, sometimes more
(02:56):
than I believed in myself, and they elevated me. They
celebrated me, they were respectful, they were encouraging. You know,
they would celebrate my wins, they would console me and
my losses and just kept me honest. And that's what
dream team members are, the alternative to that of the
dream thieves. They're the ones that suck the life out
of you until you're never gonna make it. There was
several of those two.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Oh never heard that term before, and I think we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I love that because, Okay, Lane, now you don't know this,
but your we're meeting on a day where my dream
has been stolen. And that dream was me winning the
State of Origin series for twenty twenty six, and I
don't want to focus on it too much.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
However, the Lane, you're killing me.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're killing me because your boys they stole the dream,
They stole the dream.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
How do I go on after this?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Thievery well, stop being a floody victim about it, because
we didn't steal anything for a start. Okay. Secondly, Queensland
just weren't as good as us last night. So it's
just a matter of fact that the Blue showed up,
showed more intensity, showed more passion, were more cohesive, We're
(04:07):
more focused, made less errors, backed themselves more there was
you know, it's a confluence of events. It's not just
one game, it's a series of events that leads up
to that. And it was a bloody great game. So
go the Blues and Queensland you got next time.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It sounds like if surfing wasn't your goline that you
might have had a crack.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, rugby league.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
What were your sports that you loved outside of surfing
growing up, And if you weren't going to be special
in surfing, which one would you have backed yourself in?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
With? Tennis? Wow, I loved playing tennis and cricket really
loved playing cricket.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
There was there ever a realistic chance that you were
going to take those pathways or were you just you
were just you know, tied to the ocean.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I always loved the ocean. There was a maybe a
sliver of hope that or Chancellor may have gone down
the tennis route, but surfing just kept dragging me back.
It was the one sport that I just couldn't stop
thinking about, continuously daydreamed about, and always wanted to be
in the ocean. So I'm very glad that I chose surfing,
or surfing chose me because and obviously I didn't do
(05:14):
it for the money. I did it for the love
of sport, yeah, and focused on just becoming the best
in the world that.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Yeah, those tennis players they don't earn mind.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, they don't earn too much now. But I probably
made the right choice.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I spent a year, I spent some time working with
Samantha Stosa, and I went to Abu Dhabi as a
bit of like a bit of a mindset coach at
the time, and I met Serena Williams's sister and she
taught not venus, the other.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
One, the one doesn't play tennis, Yes, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She said, Serena's going to need to marry well because
she only earned four million, fourteen million dollars. You know
throughout her career. And I looked at Sam and I said,
should I tell her that I was on tour for
nineteen years and earned half a million dollars in my
career or should I just stay silent?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Wait, let's just highlight that because I think sometimes we
think of surfing and it is as Australians. You're the
glamour athletes, right, You're the ones that we want to
pin up, the people that are on the cover of
Men's and Women's Health.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It's almost your.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Ideal Australian is someone who's well, if you were a
spatter of freckles in the sea, salt in their hair.
Just what do you mean that over your career that
was your earnings?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Like pardon well, it was a misogynistic shit show. Back
in the nineties, there was very limited support and recognition
for women in the world of surfing. And have you
seen the documentary Girls Can't Serve?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Oh no, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, I have to watch that documentary. It's a beautiful
snapshot of what we endured and how we're managed to
overcome it to achieve pay equity in twenty nineteen. But
in the lead up to all of that, it was
a challenging time because the men didn't respect us. The
governing body didn't respect us in the industry. He didn't
want anything to do with us. So we were like
this side show that was just constantly on pause. And
(07:00):
if they wanted to save money, they would cancel our events.
And if they wanted to change that a chain turner
a vent and to a bikini contest, and they could
do that too. They just, you know, we were if
the waves turned a shit, they send the girls out.
We were just constantly this second class fiddle that just
weren't really respected or regarded as being I don't know,
(07:20):
a viable thing for surfing, and it took a long
time and a lot of battles at the beach and
in the boardroom to get surfing to where it is today.
So I'm incredibly proud that my predecessors, my generation, and
future generations have all done their bit to ensure that
women's surfing is in a really beautiful place right now.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
You mentioned that pay parody in twenty nineteen, and you've
spoken previously that of all your achievements, it's not the trophies,
it's that that you're most proud of. How much of
a battle, was it? And were there moments where you
believed that it just wouldn't get there?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh, that was majority of my career. I never believed
it it would achieve that I was when the CEO
called me to tell me that they had agreed on
pay equity and that I was part of the transition
and part of the fight. It brought me to tears,
because there were a lot of times when I was
(08:13):
brought to tears in the water and at the boardroom.
I just felt so rejected, so misunderstood, so devalued. And
I held that very close because it wasn't just me
that felt that way. It was the whole of women's
surfing that felt that way. And even though I was
the representative at the board table, when my voice doesn't
(08:36):
feel like it's being heard and respected, I take that
as the whole of women's surfing is being seen and
disrespected in that way too, which made it very difficult
for me or challenging to navigate that path while I'm
the world champion of the sport but also the director
or representative of the sport at the executive table. And
then they revoked our vote from the table, so then
(08:57):
we had to then present our whatever our I was
about to use demands, but our requests and desires.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh no, women of course make demands, make demands a
bossy did you know?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
It's so bossy?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And yeah, I had to deliver those all through the
band and then they had to represent us at the table,
and yeah, it was a it was a tiger war.
That has resulted now in you know, girls earning more
in one year that I earned in nineteen. Yes, yeah,
Molly Picchulm's probably reaping all of the joys.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
But also change in the way that we cossume the sport. Right,
Like social media means that you can market yourself and
you can be like put your brand out there, whereas
upoint a time it would have been the line share
of your income is just what the sport believes that
you're worth.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Is there is exact There's something I think, Look, it's poetic,
but in a sad way, Lane, But why is crying
in the ocean.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Just so cathartic?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Because Laane was talking about her tears like in the
boardroom and also in the water, and I just feel
like it's some one who has spent so much of
their life in those waves.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
I feel like you're an enlightened person.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, the ocean is like going back into the womb.
For me. It's a truly immercy of experience where I've
learned to surrender, I've learned to adapt. It's where I
experience through freedom and I feel the safety to express
myself openly and honestly when I'm in the water. So yeah,
I've cried a lot of tears in the ocean. I've
(10:29):
had a lot of laughs. I've experienced and expressed a
lot of frustration and anger. But the beautiful thing about
the ocean is it doesn't discriminate and it doesn't judge.
The only thing that does that is the people in it.
So if we can be really discerning around who we're
spending our time with, especially in the water, then we
can actually bring the best of ourselves out consistently and
(10:51):
that's a really beautiful place to find yourself daily.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Oh just for a bit of context, line, Georgie during
COVID was living in Melbourne, CBD, and she was like,
I'm in Conkete Jungle of Hell, and the one demand
to Robert was she was like, if I can't see
the ocean in the next place, that we live, it's
over for me.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I just love the ocean so much, like it's just
it just does make you feel better, which is why
I thought that Robert describing you that way is just
so so wonderful and so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yes, that's very loving.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
In my mind.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Well yeah, but you're like a tide then in my mind,
the ebbs and the flows because it carries you, you know, Yes.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And I think that that and I think that that
is glorious.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
Do you think people are utilizing it enough the ocean?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, well, we're all on our screens, we're all using
apps to try to teach us how to breathe. Do
you think people realize that, you know, when you really
need it. It's turning back to the things that we've
been doing for hundreds of thousands of years.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
If people could just detach from technology and immerse themselves
in nature, then the world's problems would be solved because
we've detached from our true essence. And in the mental
health space, we talk about if you're feeling blue, touch green,
and the ability to immerse yourself in a environment that's soothing,
that's calming, that's nurturing, that's still or even if it's chaotic,
(12:13):
there's still stillness amongst it. It's just a place where
you can surrender and let go. But we're just such
control freaks in this relentless pursuit of having more, doing more,
being more. All ego and fear driven, and it's a
really unhealthy relationship that we have with ourselves, which then
extends to an unhealthy relationship with nature. So we're overutilizing
(12:35):
technology and underutilizing the basics of connecting with nature and
connecting back with ourselves, because that's what nature is as
a reflection of us.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
We were both laughing then, because you're like egos and
fear driven where women in our mid thirties in media
and that's how we live our lives.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And oh god, she's seeing us fail us.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I'm I am thirty six this year, and that is
correct me if I'm wrong. The year that you moved
away from surfing at thirty year, the year that you retired.
And I've read articles where you speak about the detachment
if you ever can, from who you are and what
you do.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I am self aware enough to know that I can't
do that.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, as in so much yes, yes, but so much
of what has always been you know, you get your
gold star in life has been through this career that
we've chosen.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
And not that I'm a world champion of anything, but.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You sort of how did you go going from the
single most celebrated surfer ever to then going hang on
outside of surfing?
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Who am I am? I?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
It's a good question. I believe a lot of people, Well,
everyone whoever has a full time job and then retires
is going to experience.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
And athletes are the only ones that know they're going
to do it twice or twice.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done it several times. But it
is like the tide, just like Georgie said, ebbs and flows.
It's kind of like the stages of grief. One day
you feel good, the next day you don't feel so good.
And you know what, It's the ego that causes the tension.
It's the heart that releases it. So if I kept
coming back to my heart and asking myself why, then
(14:12):
I stay with my heart. But if I keep going
into the how, then I go into my ego and fear.
And the how is what drives the fear, and it's
the why that what brings me back to fun and flow.
So I had to keep asking myself why did I
let go? Why why am I feeling this way? And
I in the first four years, I really struggled. I
must admit I had convinced myself that women surfing and
(14:34):
needed me and that I needed to make a comeback
to keep the sport going. That's how they.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Drowning without me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I could see that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
They really need forty year old me to return.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Because I'm still ripping. I need to get back there.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But jump on my board.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I've got you. Yeah, yeah, it's all right, girls, I'm
come back to save you. Yeah, you all need me.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Girls, that we couldn't compete while you were dominating, and
probably like we were good.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
We were good Williams, but for a long time there.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
No one else could win.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Lane, may please piss off, because we're much better here
without you. Thank you. So what I did, though, ladies,
is I found I found a mentor to help me
break down the relentless drive to keep doing, to keep being,
because I've had so many realizations. And it's funny how
(15:29):
you have these realizations. You're like, ah, okay, that's how
to do things differently, and then you start doing things differently,
and then the universe tests you how committed are you
to doing things differently, and you're like, Oh, I think
I can just keep pushing through, carrying on, getting along
with this. I still feel okay, But deep down I
call it the performance paradox. There's a gap between the
(15:50):
visible output and the invisible depletion.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Oh jeez, oh my god. We need to be taking notes, Lane.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
This is free therapy for us.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
This is this is like this is brown with respect. Yeah,
it's way better, But that's not pushing.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's where I was, and that's that's why I teach
what I teach now through Awake Academy. But to go
back to your question that I struggled with retirement because
I was so young, and I had defined myself as
being a professional athlete for so long and now as
a world champion athlete for for many years. Choosing a
new identity was really hard. Do you know when you
travel on a plane and you have to write out
(16:27):
your occupation. I didn't know what title to write, so
I just kept writing athlete for many years until I
joined a board and then I became a director, so
I was like, Okay, that's better.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
That's something else, that's a fun title too.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I found a mentor who helped me understand what was
the relentless pursuit of and I realized I was I
wasn't going for fame, fortune or silverware. I was actually
going for self work. That's really what I was striving for.
So when I identified that I was worthy from here
as opposed to out there, and that changed my perspective
of what I was saying yes to, what I was
(17:03):
saying no to, and then empowered me to choose better.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Who was that mentor?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A lady called Debbie Spellman. Okay, but I've worked with
several mentals, but you know.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You're the mentor right, especially with your work with the
Awake Academy. Talk talk to us about that for people
who haven't who haven't heard of it. What is it
that you do, what is your driving focus and what
do you hope what do you hope people achieve from
this well.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Awake Academy is a center for human performance and helping
people build the human capacity to perform, especially when they're
under pressure. We talk a lot about establishing or creating
the human advantage, and essentially, what we're really focusing on
and what we're delivering is giving people more energy, motivation,
and connection. So we have performance without burnout, we have
(17:51):
consistency without depletion, we have leadership without disconnection, and growth
without the human cost. And a lot of this has
come from a sporting lens and now has evolved into
a more of a corporate program. So we have a
variety of different programs that we provide, but Awake Academy
is essentially our life lessons And I say our because
I have a business partner called Tess Brouer. The two
(18:12):
of us deliver and facilitate this work because we've both
been stumbling through the dark for a long time. We've
both had severe, almost life ending injuries, and we've both
been at the top of our games. And now we've
been able to create and formulate a toolkit that helps
people boost their human capacity to perform at their best consistently.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I can't help but notice as well, Lane, as you
talk about this behind you, there are numerous little motifs
of Grogu from the Mandalorian, and I can't help but
think this is the way? Is that at all time too?
Is that purposeful? Is that something that is pat you're
passionate about that? Is that in line with the Awake
(18:55):
Academy that you're.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Like, this is this is the way.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
This is my reminder because I feel like that if
you will lead me, I would run into a minus
five degrees ocean, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Follow?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah, this is the way.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'm like, all right, Well, what we pride ourselves on doing,
especially to Wake Academy, is we only take people to
places we've been ourselves. The challenges for you maybe Georgie's
I've gone really deep, so willing to take you into
not only five degree oceans, but perhaps well below or
well out into the water where you can't see your feet,
(19:29):
let alone feel the ground.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Oh oh god. Okay, the way is shaking. The way
is shaking for me, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And I don't want to, you know, step on any
toes because I want people to encourage. I want to
encourage people to go and check out the Awake Academy
because I think it's incredible. But that toolkit that you
talk about, yeah, is there? Not that I want to
cheat or get the cliff notes, but is there?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
If you could have one tool to talk about, that's
just something that our listeners could like literally take away
with them today from this chat in just in just
to make I don't know, bearables not the right word,
but to just make life that little bit, that little
bit better.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
What's one thing they can do? Breathe intentionally.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Oh. I've often said, Lane, you'll love this about me,
because I think you've already clocked me. But I've said,
I've never actually learned how to breathe. And it's the
first thing you do on this earth.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And the last thing you do.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
The thing and I'm like, I'm thirty five, When do
I learn? When do I pick that up?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's very looks very There's a lot of different ways,
in a lot of different terminologies around. You know the
physiological SiGe or box breathing technique, and you know the
variety of different breathing techniques. But if you just learn
to breathe intentionally, what that means is perhaps putting your
hands on your belly button and breathing into your hands.
Because when we're stressed, we breathe up into our chest
(20:48):
and that elevates our heart rate and speeds up our thinking.
And when our thinking is sped up, our whole world
turns into chaos. And if we don't take the time
to slow everything down inside us, then nothing else will
slow down outside of us. Really important that we just
take maybe three deep, intentional breaths ideally in and out
through your nose because that activates the parasympathetic nervous system,
(21:10):
and ensuring that the exhale is longer than the inhale,
because that's what creates the decompression.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
That's what I'm bad.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I did learn about this mostly during the Olympics broadcast
because I was having a damn time and I was
so nervous, and I work with someone and they essentially
said to me, your body doesn't know the difference between
a real threat I a lion in the room and
the threat that your brain is telling you is there
because there's a blinking camera. So if you can learn
(21:38):
how to breathe properly, your body automatically depresses. Even if
you don't that the problem hasn't changed. But if you
can just get control of your breathing, it's eighty percent
of the work.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah. And we have a podcast called a wake Up
Call and we had a guest called doctor Chris Kirsty
Goodwin come on and she taught this taught me this
thing about cortisole. So if anyone's waking up between consistently
between two and four. Cortisole is our natural stress response,
but she referred to it as a cortisole cup. I
have an empty cup, but I do have some water. No,
(22:14):
not really, okay, So let me put this into context.
So say, for example, you wake up in the morning
and you've had a bad sleep and that starts making
you feel stress. Well, that pours a bit of cortisole
into your cup. And if you don't take the time
to decompress from that stress, if you don't take the
time to shake it off or deep breaths intentionally, or
go and do move your body, do some exercise, or
(22:36):
go and go touch blue, touch green, I mean get
out of the blue, touch green, Go and immerse yourself.
You put your feet in the sand, put your feet
in the water, whatever it is to help you regulate
your nervous system. That cortisole stays in the cup. But
if we shake it off, the cortisole drains out of
the cup. Throughout the day, we have all of these
cortisole drops going into the cup. Right, bad sleep gets
(23:00):
you coffee? What are wrong? Someone cuts you off of
the traffic, someone gives you a hard time, someone criticizes you,
you get an email that triggers you. So the cortersole
just rises to the top. And if we don't take
the time to intentionally breathe or move, or go and
put our face in the sunshine, or do something that
helps us regulate our nervous system intentional breathing, for example,
(23:22):
the cortersole is now overflowing. Now between two and four am,
our bodies are starting to produce more cordsole to get
us ready for the day. But the cup's full, filling it.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Tip overp tip tip tip.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Now you're awake, and now I'm awaking.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
That's You've just described my every waking night.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But I'm also like, I can't wait to join the academy.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I can't wait to join the How does this work?
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Their places? Is the online?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
What? What?
Speaker 6 (23:49):
How do people get involved if they want to get involved?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We have a collective which is a monthly We catch
up monthly to do master classes, and then we have
you know, a big They have what we coach referred
to as pods where people meet consistently. We have a
book Awake Academy, Know Yourself, Grow Yourself to live a
happy and more purposeful life or else. Yeah, connect with
us at Awake Academy dot com, dot you and you
can just purchase one of our programs book us for
(24:13):
a keynote. There's a variety of.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Well, there's a Wake Academy and there's also the Surfing
Academy lane that I'm not sure that you're aware of,
but you are now in that with Gelmy and I
and our dreams of becoming still pro surfers.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I love you.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
I have never shared No, I can't surf.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Come on, but great, imagine if we had a giraffe.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
Come on, come on?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
What I want to know in terms of breathing. I
want to tie it back to breathing. They stay with me?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Sure, because jury and I mean I actually mean this seriously.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Have there been moments throughout your career, either mid competition
or training, when you fully wipe out and you were
in tumble turn, tumble turn table turn of a wave
where you just have that panic of like trying to
break through to the surface. Because I mean, we've all
been dumped by a wave, right, but you would have
been dumbed more than more than the average person. How
(25:14):
do you how has there been a moment where the
panic almost overtook you.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yes, yes, there's been several times, yep, and each time
is different. But I found there's a consistent theme in
addressing that kind of fear if you stay stuck in
that field or prevent you from going into the environment again.
I love the ocean too much, so I'm not willing
to stay stuck in the fear. I need to process
it very quickly. So the first thing I do when
(25:39):
I'm scared is I acknowledge I'm scared. So I paddled
out at Freshy two days ago. I was the only
one out there, and it was really big, and I
was nervous. I was like, oh, I'm scared today, and
that's okay. So the second thing is I create a
really clear process, like where do I want to sit,
where are the best waves? And then how you know
(26:01):
how much time have I got? And then I'm going
to get I'm going to gradually expose myself to that
part of the beach. So, for example, I paddled out
at the northern end where the current is, and I
gradually kept my eye on the conditions to work out
where's my exit strategy, where am I going to catch away.
That's the exit strategy. And then after that it's a
matter of keeping myself distracted so I don't go into
(26:22):
a negative thought loop because to Abbey's point, our brains
are operating on a one point zero operating system. That's
how brains. They haven't evolved so that way, as you said, Abby,
the fear of the tiger, the fear of the tiger
or the mammoth, that still exists, but it occurs just
through a thought pattern. The body's response is visceral, but
(26:46):
the thought is not rational. So yeah, I have to
keep my thoughts in check by doing deep breaths, I
start singing out loud, I talk to myself. There's no
one else out there. But you mentioned going.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Out there and being the only one out there. I'm
a West Australian. We don't go out at dawn or dusk.
And there is a theory you should never be the
furthest one out because the shark factor is real.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's you and the sharks.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Do you do you?
Speaker 6 (27:11):
How do you feel about sharks? Because you must have
encountered them.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Look, I've served for fifty years now and I've maybe
seen half a dozen of them. Wow, So I feel
very Yeah, I feel very blessed. Look what you fear,
you attract, So I tend not to think about them too.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Sharks love me.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Then, Sharks are all around here, they all around you.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You fear you, I don't fear them. Yeah, I'm I'm
aware of them. I do when I'm sitting out there
on my own and I'm miles out to see, I
do sit put my both my feet up on my
board because there at least there's a buffer between me
and the sharks.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Then yes, I just love the idea of someone like
out on the beach being like, yeah, the only one
out there is laying beachley, and she's got both her
legs up so she needs some help.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
She's fine.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I don't have them up in the air resting on
my board.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
So good, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I have a question when you're out at fresh and
there's no one there laying, but when there are people there.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Do you feel a pressure to be real good?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Like, are you just like I'm going to show these
guys that are in laying beachley or are there people
that people must double take? Actually surfers, they're out there,
they're just like morning what.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
He Yep, morning legend.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Oh damn right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I know it's beautiful. Look I get all of it.
I get everything. I get double takes, I get what
are you doing out here? I get morning legend. I
get guys that want to drop in on me to
prove to me that they're better than me. And then yeah,
there's sometimes my gets the better Man'm like, yeah, I'm
going to show you how good I am. But you know,
every day the ocean is more in charge.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Than I am.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So beautiful. Thing that I've learned through all of this
is the ability to giggle, because I know if I
get too serious, I lose my joy, and when I
lose my joy, I don't perform well. So I have
to learn to giggle, especially when I make an error
or when I fall, Otherwise I can get really trapped
in the story. Oh so and so I was watching
and they must think I'm an absolute cook and they
like what it goes. Just giggle, I literally laugh at myself.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Makes you the gig list in life?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oooh what makes me the gig list? Every day is different,
usually when I fall when I obviously didn't expect to fall,
or when it's really big, like when I went out
two days ago. It was really big and I got
actually a really good wave in and I started paddling out,
and I'm asking myself, do I paddle out? Do I
(29:41):
run back around? I'm like, oh, that looks like a gap.
And then just as I thought I was into a gap,
this massive set can that had about a fifteen foot
face on it and landed right on me and I
had to giggle through it.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
And I literally as the way, I kid, this is
not gonna be good.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, I looked at it when oh this is gonna work.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's the worst we've all had that just be like, oh,
I can't duck under it.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
No, you're me which way up in about four seconds?
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yes, well the average wife that was about.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Eight seconds is only eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, it feels like an eternity, Yes it does.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Also, can I just say and like, I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
You remember this, because I feel like, I mean, the
ocean is you returning to the womb. I feel like
you were just able to surf but likes as easy
as breathing. Potentially as someone who jumped on a surfboard
in their early thirties in a really really, really humbling
and ill fitting wetsuit on national television. I thought that
(30:45):
it would be a real great and easy time.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
It's so hard.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Was this amazing race?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
No no, no, that was another humbling experience of me
in a you know, there was a whale eVision yep,
a no no.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
This is for the project, this is for the project.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And at North Bondi there was this incredible thing where
you had like this just share boards. So you would
have like these boards and they would leave them out
there and they would do up these boards that old
boards or whatever. They would like recycle these boards and
they would just have them at North Bondai. And if
you wanted to go for a have a go, you
could you grab the board and then you return the board.
And it was this awesome system. So we did a
(31:23):
story on that. So the guy, his name was Cam
I think, who was in charge of this. He took
me out to try and teach me. God help him.
And I was there and in my classic style of
being like I'll be really good at this, and it
was so hard just to turn the board around in
the world.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
That's what I knew.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I was in trouble and I was like I was,
I mean, I was not to like toot my own horn.
I would gone to the gym three times a week. Then,
like I was pretty strong, like strongest I've ever been
in my life. And I was like, why can't I
move this board? This is so exhausting, Like it is
a different kind of strength.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
It is a very different kind of exercise. It's a
full bodys all of you, and it requires a lot
of cardiocs just so even like yeah, even I've got
girlfriends out here that surf every day, you put them
in the gym on the ski erg and they fall
apart in a second.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
It's just it's a really unique exercise that is a
full body worker that demands everything.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, And I think and it shows you where your weakness.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And when I was younger growing up watching the Sacred
Text that was Blue Crush, I remember being like, it's
so odd that there's so many workout montages because.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
I was like, why is it.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Surfer doesn't seem that hard, and I was like, holy shit,
it is a whole different thing.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that I taught him.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
He has told me that, and it's one of my
favorite stor It's such a flex and it's such a
Robert Mills thing right like, because because again, Lane, when
we're getting to know each other and I'm, you know,
a Queensland ug, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Love the beats, love the ocean.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Each gal not definitely not a Grom, but maybe in
my head I'm a Grom. That's Grommitt, guys, that's surfing
linga okay, great, thank you, thank you. And I remember
Robert being like, oh my god, can you surf? And
I was just like, oh my god, no, should we learn?
And he goes, oh, I've actually I was I.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Know how to surf.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
And I was like, oh when did you learn? And
he was like, I just learned. I think was it
Manly or something?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
You guys?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
He was like I was just out at Manly. I
was like, who told you how to surf? And he goes,
Laane Beachley stop and I was like, I'm so so
as a sports ghodo this early days.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And I was like, you had Laine Beachley teach you had.
Speaker 6 (33:34):
And that was the moment she decided I'm going to
marry this man.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I'm going to marry that man. To marry that man,
and Liss entertaining was he any good?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
But what I love about teaching teaching people how to
surf is. It reminds me just how bloody.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah, one hundred person people think they can do it
on holidays and pick it up in an hour and
be fine, Like you may offer it at hotels.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, I'm really good at knee boarding.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
So that's great.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That is a whole concept of standing.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I'm like, what the heck, I'm going to bring it
back to surfing because I appreciate that we've taken as well.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
But tangents, who's your favorite surfer of all time?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (34:14):
Wowsa Like, do you have a favorite to watch or
someone that you just went oh, like.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, there's one surfer that just continuously blows.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
My mind and that's Kelly Oh yep, just.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Like he's just phenomenal what he was able to do.
It's so young and then so old and still keep
doing it. He's just he's mind blowing and the way
he changed the sport. And you know, perhaps, and I
said to him recently, I said that I was so
honored to compete alongside him. And I know we both
(34:47):
behaved in ways that perhaps we're not proud of, but
I'm really proud of the way that we were able
to change the sport. But Kelly just took it to
a whole new level. He made surfing mainstream and just
took it to a completely new audience and able to
navigate that way while still maintaining composure and the ability
(35:07):
to perform, and that was really important to him. He
was just on this relentless pursuit of improvement and that
took the whole the surfing world with him because the
standards he set made us all lift our game continuously,
and I was just really grateful to be one of
the people alongside him throughout that period.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
It's unfortunately he's hideous.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, such a shame.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Such you know, talk about marketing. Who would want to He.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Could be a pain in the ass yeap, okay, yes,
but you know so you can't have it all.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
We okay, we can't have it all.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
And Kelly Slater, unfortunately, he just had to learn that.
You know, he had something needed something at someone. You
say he changed the sport, but you changed the sport lane.
Do you think the sport is in good hands where
it stands right now?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yes, at the moment, I'm really confident with where this
bought is. You know, every generation has its own fair
share of challenges. So yeah, I'm often asked you, you know,
don't you wish you were born and competing now versus
when you were, Like, well, every generation is going to
have its challenges, but I'm glad that I was able
to change the landscape and shift the needle and inspire
(36:17):
future champions. And I'm not only confident with where it is,
I'm actually very confident with where it's going. There's such
a deep breadth of talent coming through, especially from Australia,
just super competitive, well supported, well rounded, great natured athletes
that are going to take surfing in general, irrespective of gender,
(36:38):
to whole new heights. And I'm really excited to sit
on the sidelines and cheer that on.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Oh my goodness, well we are right there with you
because you helped create that. And Lane Beachley, this has
been so divine.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You have dropped.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
I need to listen back to our episode now with
a pen and paper with the different line. You were like,
what bumper stickers? I need all everything, all of it, everything.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
I was like, she's been serious, Like when you go,
when you when you lanisms, oh my god, when you
check back in with us lane. This woman is going
to have post its all over her house, just lanisms
like that is actually what she's going to do with
a Boer sticker on her head like that is.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
But you are quite literally a living legend. So we
are so honored that you've taken the time this morning.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Have you already had a surf this morning?
Speaker 6 (37:30):
Are you going to surf today? Do you surf most days?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Or I surf every day. I'm just waiting for the
tide to come in every day every day. I've got
about i'd say another hour and a half before I
head back out.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Oh my god, well enjoy, enjoy, and can I can
I also just say, I mean, Lord, help anyone who
decides to drop in on you.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I know.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
And the best thing is they'll drop in and hear this.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
We no know him is crying.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Hey, Hey, she's the best sport.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
That's what. Thank you so much for your time. We
so appreciate it. Thank you, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Thanks ladies, thanks for being such good sports.
Dear listener, it's a very poorly kept secret that in
another life, Abby Gelmy and myself are on the World
Surf Tour. This other life lives in our heads. We
know that we don't have the balance, we don't have
the poise. I mean, we certainly don't have the discipline
of Kate Bosworth in Blue Crush, but it is a
(00:26):
dream that we still are very very committed to, so
much so that we thought that through osmosis, what if
we could talk to the best of the best, the
greatest of all surfers, who just so happens to be
one of Australia's own, a living legend, a Hall of Famer,
(00:46):
a seven time world champion, six of those straight, and
also a woman who I have on very good authority
from a friend of hers, despite belonging to a very
individualistic sport, is the ultimate team player. When I asked
this person how they would describe Laine Beachley, they said,
(01:08):
you know how the ocean makes you feel better, that's Lane.
Lane is the ocean.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Who is this person?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Lane Beachley? Welcome to do good sports.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Good morning, Thank you Georgie, thank you ebe lovely to
see your beautiful faces, and I need to know who's that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh, that person is a mister Robert Mills, who happens
to be my fiance, but who worked with you on
The Celebrity Apprentice. Yes, and when I said that we
were talking to you today, his whole face just lit
up and was like, she is a salve to all things.
She just makes you feel so good. She is the
(01:48):
ultimate hype girl. She is the shot of coffee you
didn't know you needed.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's very kind of you, Robert.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
There's probably a strange question to start on, but how
did you find reality?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Truly?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's as far from reality as you can possibly.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, there we are, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I needed a lot of vodka to get through that series,
and it was a dry set, which made it even harder.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
I dry set.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Wow, sometimes I need vodka to get through life with
Robert Mills and I love that man, Do you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
But truly it is when we say surfing being an
individual sport, did you find that during your career or
did you have so many different people that you needed
to lean on in order to have the success that
you did.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, I refer to all the people that I leaned
on and had support from was my dream team, and
there was a variety of them, so from coaches, mentors,
personal trainers, surfboard shapers, practitioners, friends, family. None of us
have done this alone. And I'm very grateful that I've
surrounded myself with people who believed in me, sometimes more
(02:56):
than I believed in myself, and they elevated me. They
celebrated me, they were respectful, they were encouraging. You know,
they would celebrate my wins, they would console me and
my losses and just kept me honest. And that's what
dream team members are, the alternative to that of the
dream thieves. They're the ones that suck the life out
of you until you're never gonna make it. There was
several of those two.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Oh never heard that term before, and I think we're gonna.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I love that because, Okay, Lane, now you don't know this,
but your we're meeting on a day where my dream
has been stolen. And that dream was me winning the
State of Origin series for twenty twenty six, and I
don't want to focus on it too much.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
However, the Lane, you're killing me.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You're killing me because your boys they stole the dream,
They stole the dream.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
How do I go on after this?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Thievery well, stop being a floody victim about it, because
we didn't steal anything for a start. Okay. Secondly, Queensland
just weren't as good as us last night. So it's
just a matter of fact that the Blue showed up,
showed more intensity, showed more passion, were more cohesive, We're
(04:07):
more focused, made less errors, backed themselves more there was
you know, it's a confluence of events. It's not just
one game, it's a series of events that leads up
to that. And it was a bloody great game. So
go the Blues and Queensland you got next time.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
It sounds like if surfing wasn't your goline that you
might have had a crack.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah, rugby league.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
What were your sports that you loved outside of surfing
growing up, And if you weren't going to be special
in surfing, which one would you have backed yourself in?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
With? Tennis? Wow, I loved playing tennis and cricket really
loved playing cricket.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
There was there ever a realistic chance that you were
going to take those pathways or were you just you
were just you know, tied to the ocean.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I always loved the ocean. There was a maybe a
sliver of hope that or Chancellor may have gone down
the tennis route, but surfing just kept dragging me back.
It was the one sport that I just couldn't stop
thinking about, continuously daydreamed about, and always wanted to be
in the ocean. So I'm very glad that I chose surfing,
or surfing chose me because and obviously I didn't do
(05:14):
it for the money. I did it for the love
of sport, yeah, and focused on just becoming the best
in the world that.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Yeah, those tennis players they don't earn mind.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, they don't earn too much now. But I probably
made the right choice.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I spent a year, I spent some time working with
Samantha Stosa, and I went to Abu Dhabi as a
bit of like a bit of a mindset coach at
the time, and I met Serena Williams's sister and she
taught not venus, the other.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
One, the one doesn't play tennis, Yes, okay, And.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She said, Serena's going to need to marry well because
she only earned four million, fourteen million dollars. You know
throughout her career. And I looked at Sam and I said,
should I tell her that I was on tour for
nineteen years and earned half a million dollars in my
career or should I just stay silent?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Wait, let's just highlight that because I think sometimes we
think of surfing and it is as Australians. You're the
glamour athletes, right, You're the ones that we want to
pin up, the people that are on the cover of
Men's and Women's Health.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It's almost your.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Ideal Australian is someone who's well, if you were a
spatter of freckles in the sea, salt in their hair.
Just what do you mean that over your career that
was your earnings?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Like pardon well, it was a misogynistic shit show. Back
in the nineties, there was very limited support and recognition
for women in the world of surfing. And have you
seen the documentary Girls Can't Serve?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Oh no, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, I have to watch that documentary. It's a beautiful
snapshot of what we endured and how we're managed to
overcome it to achieve pay equity in twenty nineteen. But
in the lead up to all of that, it was
a challenging time because the men didn't respect us. The
governing body didn't respect us in the industry. He didn't
want anything to do with us. So we were like
this side show that was just constantly on pause. And
(07:00):
if they wanted to save money, they would cancel our events.
And if they wanted to change that a chain turner
a vent and to a bikini contest, and they could
do that too. They just, you know, we were if
the waves turned a shit, they send the girls out.
We were just constantly this second class fiddle that just
weren't really respected or regarded as being I don't know,
(07:20):
a viable thing for surfing, and it took a long
time and a lot of battles at the beach and
in the boardroom to get surfing to where it is today.
So I'm incredibly proud that my predecessors, my generation, and
future generations have all done their bit to ensure that
women's surfing is in a really beautiful place right now.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
You mentioned that pay parody in twenty nineteen, and you've
spoken previously that of all your achievements, it's not the trophies,
it's that that you're most proud of. How much of
a battle, was it? And were there moments where you
believed that it just wouldn't get there?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh, that was majority of my career. I never believed
it it would achieve that I was when the CEO
called me to tell me that they had agreed on
pay equity and that I was part of the transition
and part of the fight. It brought me to tears,
because there were a lot of times when I was
(08:13):
brought to tears in the water and at the boardroom.
I just felt so rejected, so misunderstood, so devalued. And
I held that very close because it wasn't just me
that felt that way. It was the whole of women's
surfing that felt that way. And even though I was
the representative at the board table, when my voice doesn't
(08:36):
feel like it's being heard and respected, I take that
as the whole of women's surfing is being seen and
disrespected in that way too, which made it very difficult
for me or challenging to navigate that path while I'm
the world champion of the sport but also the director
or representative of the sport at the executive table. And
then they revoked our vote from the table, so then
(08:57):
we had to then present our whatever our I was
about to use demands, but our requests and desires.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh no, women of course make demands, make demands a
bossy did you know?
Speaker 5 (09:09):
It's so bossy?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
And yeah, I had to deliver those all through the
band and then they had to represent us at the table,
and yeah, it was a it was a tiger war.
That has resulted now in you know, girls earning more
in one year that I earned in nineteen. Yes, yeah,
Molly Picchulm's probably reaping all of the joys.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
But also change in the way that we cossume the sport. Right,
Like social media means that you can market yourself and
you can be like put your brand out there, whereas
upoint a time it would have been the line share
of your income is just what the sport believes that
you're worth.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Is there is exact There's something I think, Look, it's poetic,
but in a sad way, Lane, But why is crying
in the ocean.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Just so cathartic?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Because Laane was talking about her tears like in the
boardroom and also in the water, and I just feel
like it's some one who has spent so much of
their life in those waves.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
I feel like you're an enlightened person.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, the ocean is like going back into the womb.
For me. It's a truly immercy of experience where I've
learned to surrender, I've learned to adapt. It's where I
experience through freedom and I feel the safety to express
myself openly and honestly when I'm in the water. So yeah,
I've cried a lot of tears in the ocean. I've
(10:29):
had a lot of laughs. I've experienced and expressed a
lot of frustration and anger. But the beautiful thing about
the ocean is it doesn't discriminate and it doesn't judge.
The only thing that does that is the people in it.
So if we can be really discerning around who we're
spending our time with, especially in the water, then we
can actually bring the best of ourselves out consistently and
(10:51):
that's a really beautiful place to find yourself daily.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Oh just for a bit of context, line, Georgie during
COVID was living in Melbourne, CBD, and she was like,
I'm in Conkete Jungle of Hell, and the one demand
to Robert was she was like, if I can't see
the ocean in the next place, that we live, it's
over for me.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
I just love the ocean so much, like it's just
it just does make you feel better, which is why
I thought that Robert describing you that way is just
so so wonderful and so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yes, that's very loving.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
In my mind.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Well yeah, but you're like a tide then in my mind,
the ebbs and the flows because it carries you, you know, Yes.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And I think that that and I think that that
is glorious.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
Do you think people are utilizing it enough the ocean?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah, well, we're all on our screens, we're all using
apps to try to teach us how to breathe. Do
you think people realize that, you know, when you really
need it. It's turning back to the things that we've
been doing for hundreds of thousands of years.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
If people could just detach from technology and immerse themselves
in nature, then the world's problems would be solved because
we've detached from our true essence. And in the mental
health space, we talk about if you're feeling blue, touch green,
and the ability to immerse yourself in a environment that's soothing,
that's calming, that's nurturing, that's still or even if it's chaotic,
(12:13):
there's still stillness amongst it. It's just a place where
you can surrender and let go. But we're just such
control freaks in this relentless pursuit of having more, doing more,
being more. All ego and fear driven, and it's a
really unhealthy relationship that we have with ourselves, which then
extends to an unhealthy relationship with nature. So we're overutilizing
(12:35):
technology and underutilizing the basics of connecting with nature and
connecting back with ourselves, because that's what nature is as
a reflection of us.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
We were both laughing then, because you're like egos and
fear driven where women in our mid thirties in media
and that's how we live our lives.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
And oh god, she's seeing us fail us.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I'm I am thirty six this year, and that is
correct me if I'm wrong. The year that you moved
away from surfing at thirty year, the year that you retired.
And I've read articles where you speak about the detachment
if you ever can, from who you are and what
you do.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I am self aware enough to know that I can't
do that.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah, as in so much yes, yes, but so much
of what has always been you know, you get your
gold star in life has been through this career that
we've chosen.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
And not that I'm a world champion of anything, but.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
You sort of how did you go going from the
single most celebrated surfer ever to then going hang on
outside of surfing?
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Who am I am? I?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
It's a good question. I believe a lot of people, Well,
everyone whoever has a full time job and then retires
is going to experience.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
And athletes are the only ones that know they're going
to do it twice or twice.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done it several times. But it
is like the tide, just like Georgie said, ebbs and flows.
It's kind of like the stages of grief. One day
you feel good, the next day you don't feel so good.
And you know what, It's the ego that causes the tension.
It's the heart that releases it. So if I kept
coming back to my heart and asking myself why, then
(14:12):
I stay with my heart. But if I keep going
into the how, then I go into my ego and fear.
And the how is what drives the fear, and it's
the why that what brings me back to fun and flow.
So I had to keep asking myself why did I
let go? Why why am I feeling this way? And
I in the first four years, I really struggled. I
must admit I had convinced myself that women surfing and
(14:34):
needed me and that I needed to make a comeback
to keep the sport going. That's how they.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
Drowning without me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I could see that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
They really need forty year old me to return.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Because I'm still ripping. I need to get back there.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But jump on my board.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I've got you. Yeah, yeah, it's all right, girls, I'm
come back to save you. Yeah, you all need me.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Girls, that we couldn't compete while you were dominating, and
probably like we were good.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
We were good Williams, but for a long time there.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
No one else could win.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Lane, may please piss off, because we're much better here
without you. Thank you. So what I did, though, ladies,
is I found I found a mentor to help me
break down the relentless drive to keep doing, to keep being,
because I've had so many realizations. And it's funny how
(15:29):
you have these realizations. You're like, ah, okay, that's how
to do things differently, and then you start doing things differently,
and then the universe tests you how committed are you
to doing things differently, and you're like, Oh, I think
I can just keep pushing through, carrying on, getting along
with this. I still feel okay, But deep down I
call it the performance paradox. There's a gap between the
(15:50):
visible output and the invisible depletion.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Oh jeez, oh my god. We need to be taking notes, Lane.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
This is free therapy for us.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
This is this is like this is brown with respect. Yeah,
it's way better, But that's not pushing.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's where I was, and that's that's why I teach
what I teach now through Awake Academy. But to go
back to your question that I struggled with retirement because
I was so young, and I had defined myself as
being a professional athlete for so long and now as
a world champion athlete for for many years. Choosing a
new identity was really hard. Do you know when you
travel on a plane and you have to write out
(16:27):
your occupation. I didn't know what title to write, so
I just kept writing athlete for many years until I
joined a board and then I became a director, so
I was like, Okay, that's better.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
That's something else, that's a fun title too.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I found a mentor who helped me understand what was
the relentless pursuit of and I realized I was I
wasn't going for fame, fortune or silverware. I was actually
going for self work. That's really what I was striving for.
So when I identified that I was worthy from here
as opposed to out there, and that changed my perspective
of what I was saying yes to, what I was
(17:03):
saying no to, and then empowered me to choose better.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Who was that mentor?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
A lady called Debbie Spellman. Okay, but I've worked with
several mentals, but you know.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
You're the mentor right, especially with your work with the
Awake Academy. Talk talk to us about that for people
who haven't who haven't heard of it. What is it
that you do, what is your driving focus and what
do you hope what do you hope people achieve from
this well.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Awake Academy is a center for human performance and helping
people build the human capacity to perform, especially when they're
under pressure. We talk a lot about establishing or creating
the human advantage, and essentially, what we're really focusing on
and what we're delivering is giving people more energy, motivation,
and connection. So we have performance without burnout, we have
(17:51):
consistency without depletion, we have leadership without disconnection, and growth
without the human cost. And a lot of this has
come from a sporting lens and now has evolved into
a more of a corporate program. So we have a
variety of different programs that we provide, but Awake Academy
is essentially our life lessons And I say our because
I have a business partner called Tess Brouer. The two
(18:12):
of us deliver and facilitate this work because we've both
been stumbling through the dark for a long time. We've
both had severe, almost life ending injuries, and we've both
been at the top of our games. And now we've
been able to create and formulate a toolkit that helps
people boost their human capacity to perform at their best consistently.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
I can't help but notice as well, Lane, as you
talk about this behind you, there are numerous little motifs
of Grogu from the Mandalorian, and I can't help but
think this is the way? Is that at all time too?
Is that purposeful? Is that something that is pat you're
passionate about that? Is that in line with the Awake
(18:55):
Academy that you're.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Like, this is this is the way.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
This is my reminder because I feel like that if
you will lead me, I would run into a minus
five degrees ocean, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Follow?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah, this is the way.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I'm like, all right, Well, what we pride ourselves on doing,
especially to Wake Academy, is we only take people to
places we've been ourselves. The challenges for you maybe Georgie's
I've gone really deep, so willing to take you into
not only five degree oceans, but perhaps well below or
well out into the water where you can't see your feet,
(19:29):
let alone feel the ground.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Oh oh god. Okay, the way is shaking. The way
is shaking for me, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
And I don't want to, you know, step on any
toes because I want people to encourage. I want to
encourage people to go and check out the Awake Academy
because I think it's incredible. But that toolkit that you
talk about, yeah, is there? Not that I want to
cheat or get the cliff notes, but is there?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
If you could have one tool to talk about, that's
just something that our listeners could like literally take away
with them today from this chat in just in just
to make I don't know, bearables not the right word,
but to just make life that little bit, that little
bit better.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
What's one thing they can do? Breathe intentionally.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Oh. I've often said, Lane, you'll love this about me,
because I think you've already clocked me. But I've said,
I've never actually learned how to breathe. And it's the
first thing you do on this earth.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
And the last thing you do.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
The thing and I'm like, I'm thirty five, When do
I learn? When do I pick that up?
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's very looks very There's a lot of different ways,
in a lot of different terminologies around. You know the
physiological SiGe or box breathing technique, and you know the
variety of different breathing techniques. But if you just learn
to breathe intentionally, what that means is perhaps putting your
hands on your belly button and breathing into your hands.
Because when we're stressed, we breathe up into our chest
(20:48):
and that elevates our heart rate and speeds up our thinking.
And when our thinking is sped up, our whole world
turns into chaos. And if we don't take the time
to slow everything down inside us, then nothing else will
slow down outside of us. Really important that we just
take maybe three deep, intentional breaths ideally in and out
through your nose because that activates the parasympathetic nervous system,
(21:10):
and ensuring that the exhale is longer than the inhale,
because that's what creates the decompression.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
That's what I'm bad.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I did learn about this mostly during the Olympics broadcast
because I was having a damn time and I was
so nervous, and I work with someone and they essentially
said to me, your body doesn't know the difference between
a real threat I a lion in the room and
the threat that your brain is telling you is there
because there's a blinking camera. So if you can learn
(21:38):
how to breathe properly, your body automatically depresses. Even if
you don't that the problem hasn't changed. But if you
can just get control of your breathing, it's eighty percent
of the work.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah. And we have a podcast called a wake Up
Call and we had a guest called doctor Chris Kirsty
Goodwin come on and she taught this taught me this
thing about cortisole. So if anyone's waking up between consistently
between two and four. Cortisole is our natural stress response,
but she referred to it as a cortisole cup. I
have an empty cup, but I do have some water. No,
(22:14):
not really, okay, So let me put this into context.
So say, for example, you wake up in the morning
and you've had a bad sleep and that starts making
you feel stress. Well, that pours a bit of cortisole
into your cup. And if you don't take the time
to decompress from that stress, if you don't take the
time to shake it off or deep breaths intentionally, or
go and do move your body, do some exercise, or
(22:36):
go and go touch blue, touch green, I mean get
out of the blue, touch green, Go and immerse yourself.
You put your feet in the sand, put your feet
in the water, whatever it is to help you regulate
your nervous system. That cortisole stays in the cup. But
if we shake it off, the cortisole drains out of
the cup. Throughout the day, we have all of these
cortisole drops going into the cup. Right, bad sleep gets
(23:00):
you coffee? What are wrong? Someone cuts you off of
the traffic, someone gives you a hard time, someone criticizes you,
you get an email that triggers you. So the cortersole
just rises to the top. And if we don't take
the time to intentionally breathe or move, or go and
put our face in the sunshine, or do something that
helps us regulate our nervous system intentional breathing, for example,
(23:22):
the cortersole is now overflowing. Now between two and four am,
our bodies are starting to produce more cordsole to get
us ready for the day. But the cup's full, filling it.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Tip overp tip tip tip.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Now you're awake, and now I'm awaking.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
That's You've just described my every waking night.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But I'm also like, I can't wait to join the academy.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I can't wait to join the How does this work?
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Their places? Is the online?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
What? What?
Speaker 6 (23:49):
How do people get involved if they want to get involved?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We have a collective which is a monthly We catch
up monthly to do master classes, and then we have
you know, a big They have what we coach referred
to as pods where people meet consistently. We have a
book Awake Academy, Know Yourself, Grow Yourself to live a
happy and more purposeful life or else. Yeah, connect with
us at Awake Academy dot com, dot you and you
can just purchase one of our programs book us for
(24:13):
a keynote. There's a variety of.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Well, there's a Wake Academy and there's also the Surfing
Academy lane that I'm not sure that you're aware of,
but you are now in that with Gelmy and I
and our dreams of becoming still pro surfers.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
I love you.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
I have never shared No, I can't surf.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Come on, but great, imagine if we had a giraffe.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
Come on, come on?
Speaker 1 (24:45):
What I want to know in terms of breathing. I
want to tie it back to breathing. They stay with me?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Sure, because jury and I mean I actually mean this seriously.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Have there been moments throughout your career, either mid competition
or training, when you fully wipe out and you were
in tumble turn, tumble turn table turn of a wave
where you just have that panic of like trying to
break through to the surface. Because I mean, we've all
been dumped by a wave, right, but you would have
been dumbed more than more than the average person. How
(25:14):
do you how has there been a moment where the
panic almost overtook you.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yes, yes, there's been several times, yep, and each time
is different. But I found there's a consistent theme in
addressing that kind of fear if you stay stuck in
that field or prevent you from going into the environment again.
I love the ocean too much, so I'm not willing
to stay stuck in the fear. I need to process
it very quickly. So the first thing I do when
(25:39):
I'm scared is I acknowledge I'm scared. So I paddled
out at Freshy two days ago. I was the only
one out there, and it was really big, and I
was nervous. I was like, oh, I'm scared today, and
that's okay. So the second thing is I create a
really clear process, like where do I want to sit,
where are the best waves? And then how you know
(26:01):
how much time have I got? And then I'm going
to get I'm going to gradually expose myself to that
part of the beach. So, for example, I paddled out
at the northern end where the current is, and I
gradually kept my eye on the conditions to work out
where's my exit strategy, where am I going to catch away.
That's the exit strategy. And then after that it's a
matter of keeping myself distracted so I don't go into
(26:22):
a negative thought loop because to Abbey's point, our brains
are operating on a one point zero operating system. That's
how brains. They haven't evolved so that way, as you said, Abby,
the fear of the tiger, the fear of the tiger
or the mammoth, that still exists, but it occurs just
through a thought pattern. The body's response is visceral, but
(26:46):
the thought is not rational. So yeah, I have to
keep my thoughts in check by doing deep breaths, I
start singing out loud, I talk to myself. There's no
one else out there. But you mentioned going.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Out there and being the only one out there. I'm
a West Australian. We don't go out at dawn or dusk.
And there is a theory you should never be the
furthest one out because the shark factor is real.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
It's you and the sharks.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Do you do you?
Speaker 6 (27:11):
How do you feel about sharks? Because you must have
encountered them.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Look, I've served for fifty years now and I've maybe
seen half a dozen of them. Wow, So I feel
very Yeah, I feel very blessed. Look what you fear,
you attract, So I tend not to think about them too.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Sharks love me.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Then, Sharks are all around here, they all around you.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
You fear you, I don't fear them. Yeah, I'm I'm
aware of them. I do when I'm sitting out there
on my own and I'm miles out to see, I
do sit put my both my feet up on my
board because there at least there's a buffer between me
and the sharks.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Then yes, I just love the idea of someone like
out on the beach being like, yeah, the only one
out there is laying beachley, and she's got both her
legs up so she needs some help.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
She's fine.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I don't have them up in the air resting on
my board.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
So good, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I have a question when you're out at fresh and
there's no one there laying, but when there are people there.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Do you feel a pressure to be real good?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Like, are you just like I'm going to show these
guys that are in laying beachley or are there people
that people must double take? Actually surfers, they're out there,
they're just like morning what.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
He Yep, morning legend.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Oh damn right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I know it's beautiful. Look I get all of it.
I get everything. I get double takes, I get what
are you doing out here? I get morning legend. I
get guys that want to drop in on me to
prove to me that they're better than me. And then yeah,
there's sometimes my gets the better Man'm like, yeah, I'm
going to show you how good I am. But you know,
every day the ocean is more in charge.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Than I am.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So beautiful. Thing that I've learned through all of this
is the ability to giggle, because I know if I
get too serious, I lose my joy, and when I
lose my joy, I don't perform well. So I have
to learn to giggle, especially when I make an error
or when I fall, Otherwise I can get really trapped
in the story. Oh so and so I was watching
and they must think I'm an absolute cook and they
like what it goes. Just giggle, I literally laugh at myself.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Makes you the gig list in life?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Oooh what makes me the gig list? Every day is different,
usually when I fall when I obviously didn't expect to fall,
or when it's really big, like when I went out
two days ago. It was really big and I got
actually a really good wave in and I started paddling out,
and I'm asking myself, do I paddle out? Do I
(29:41):
run back around? I'm like, oh, that looks like a gap.
And then just as I thought I was into a gap,
this massive set can that had about a fifteen foot
face on it and landed right on me and I
had to giggle through it.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
And I literally as the way, I kid, this is
not gonna be good.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah, I looked at it when oh this is gonna work.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's the worst we've all had that just be like, oh,
I can't duck under it.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
No, you're me which way up in about four seconds?
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yes, well the average wife that was about.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Eight seconds is only eight seconds.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, it feels like an eternity, Yes it does.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Also, can I just say and like, I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
You remember this, because I feel like, I mean, the
ocean is you returning to the womb. I feel like
you were just able to surf but likes as easy
as breathing. Potentially as someone who jumped on a surfboard
in their early thirties in a really really, really humbling
and ill fitting wetsuit on national television. I thought that
(30:45):
it would be a real great and easy time.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
It's so hard.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Was this amazing race?
Speaker 1 (30:52):
No no, no, that was another humbling experience of me
in a you know, there was a whale eVision yep,
a no no.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
This is for the project, this is for the project.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And at North Bondi there was this incredible thing where
you had like this just share boards. So you would
have like these boards and they would leave them out
there and they would do up these boards that old
boards or whatever. They would like recycle these boards and
they would just have them at North Bondai. And if
you wanted to go for a have a go, you
could you grab the board and then you return the board.
And it was this awesome system. So we did a
(31:23):
story on that. So the guy, his name was Cam
I think, who was in charge of this. He took
me out to try and teach me. God help him.
And I was there and in my classic style of
being like I'll be really good at this, and it
was so hard just to turn the board around in
the world.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
That's what I knew.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I was in trouble and I was like I was,
I mean, I was not to like toot my own horn.
I would gone to the gym three times a week. Then,
like I was pretty strong, like strongest I've ever been
in my life. And I was like, why can't I
move this board? This is so exhausting, Like it is
a different kind of strength.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
It is a very different kind of exercise. It's a
full bodys all of you, and it requires a lot
of cardiocs just so even like yeah, even I've got
girlfriends out here that surf every day, you put them
in the gym on the ski erg and they fall
apart in a second.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
It's just it's a really unique exercise that is a
full body worker that demands everything.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Yeah, And I think and it shows you where your weakness.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And when I was younger growing up watching the Sacred
Text that was Blue Crush, I remember being like, it's
so odd that there's so many workout montages because.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
I was like, why is it.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Surfer doesn't seem that hard, and I was like, holy shit,
it is a whole different thing.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that I taught him.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
He has told me that, and it's one of my
favorite stor It's such a flex and it's such a
Robert Mills thing right like, because because again, Lane, when
we're getting to know each other and I'm, you know,
a Queensland ug, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Love the beats, love the ocean.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Each gal not definitely not a Grom, but maybe in
my head I'm a Grom. That's Grommitt, guys, that's surfing
linga okay, great, thank you, thank you. And I remember
Robert being like, oh my god, can you surf? And
I was just like, oh my god, no, should we learn?
And he goes, oh, I've actually I was I.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Know how to surf.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
And I was like, oh when did you learn? And
he was like, I just learned. I think was it
Manly or something?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
You guys?
Speaker 1 (33:22):
He was like I was just out at Manly. I
was like, who told you how to surf? And he goes,
Laane Beachley stop and I was like, I'm so so
as a sports ghodo this early days.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And I was like, you had Laine Beachley teach you had.
Speaker 6 (33:34):
And that was the moment she decided I'm going to
marry this man.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
I'm going to marry that man. To marry that man,
and Liss entertaining was he any good?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
But what I love about teaching teaching people how to
surf is. It reminds me just how bloody.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah, one hundred person people think they can do it
on holidays and pick it up in an hour and
be fine, Like you may offer it at hotels.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yeah, I'm really good at knee boarding.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
So that's great.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
That is a whole concept of standing.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I'm like, what the heck, I'm going to bring it
back to surfing because I appreciate that we've taken as well.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
But tangents, who's your favorite surfer of all time?
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (34:14):
Wowsa Like, do you have a favorite to watch or
someone that you just went oh, like.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, there's one surfer that just continuously blows.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
My mind and that's Kelly Oh yep, just.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Like he's just phenomenal what he was able to do.
It's so young and then so old and still keep
doing it. He's just he's mind blowing and the way
he changed the sport. And you know, perhaps, and I
said to him recently, I said that I was so
honored to compete alongside him. And I know we both
(34:47):
behaved in ways that perhaps we're not proud of, but
I'm really proud of the way that we were able
to change the sport. But Kelly just took it to
a whole new level. He made surfing mainstream and just
took it to a completely new audience and able to
navigate that way while still maintaining composure and the ability
(35:07):
to perform, and that was really important to him. He
was just on this relentless pursuit of improvement and that
took the whole the surfing world with him because the
standards he set made us all lift our game continuously,
and I was just really grateful to be one of
the people alongside him throughout that period.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
It's unfortunately he's hideous.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, such a shame.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Such you know, talk about marketing. Who would want to He.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Could be a pain in the ass yeap, okay, yes,
but you know so you can't have it all.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
We okay, we can't have it all.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
And Kelly Slater, unfortunately, he just had to learn that.
You know, he had something needed something at someone. You
say he changed the sport, but you changed the sport lane.
Do you think the sport is in good hands where
it stands right now?
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yes, at the moment, I'm really confident with where this
bought is. You know, every generation has its own fair
share of challenges. So yeah, I'm often asked you, you know,
don't you wish you were born and competing now versus
when you were, Like, well, every generation is going to
have its challenges, but I'm glad that I was able
to change the landscape and shift the needle and inspire
(36:17):
future champions. And I'm not only confident with where it is,
I'm actually very confident with where it's going. There's such
a deep breadth of talent coming through, especially from Australia,
just super competitive, well supported, well rounded, great natured athletes
that are going to take surfing in general, irrespective of gender,
(36:38):
to whole new heights. And I'm really excited to sit
on the sidelines and cheer that on.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Oh my goodness, well we are right there with you
because you helped create that. And Lane Beachley, this has
been so divine.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
You have dropped.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
I need to listen back to our episode now with
a pen and paper with the different line. You were like,
what bumper stickers? I need all everything, all of it, everything.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
I was like, she's been serious, Like when you go,
when you when you lanisms, oh my god, when you
check back in with us lane. This woman is going
to have post its all over her house, just lanisms
like that is actually what she's going to do with
a Boer sticker on her head like that is.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
But you are quite literally a living legend. So we
are so honored that you've taken the time this morning.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
Have you already had a surf this morning?
Speaker 6 (37:30):
Are you going to surf today? Do you surf most days?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Or I surf every day. I'm just waiting for the
tide to come in every day every day. I've got
about i'd say another hour and a half before I
head back out.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Oh my god, well enjoy, enjoy, and can I can
I also just say, I mean, Lord, help anyone who
decides to drop in on you.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I know.
Speaker 6 (37:54):
And the best thing is they'll drop in and hear this.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
We no know him is crying.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Hey, Hey, she's the best sport.
Speaker 5 (38:07):
That's what. Thank you so much for your time. We
so appreciate it. Thank you, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Thanks ladies, thanks for being such good sports.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.